A passenger flight from Portugal to Manchester was forced to make an emergency landing at Bristol Airport, after an issue on board.

The Ryanair service was set to return travellers to Manchester from the coastal city of Porto, in the north west of Portugal.

But, when heading over the English Channel on Friday night (August 20), the aircraft, operating flight FR1174, sent a distress signal to air traffic control, alerting them to an emergency on board.

According to reports, the aircraft sent a “7700 emergency call” to the ground – which signifies that there was an urgent situation on board.

There are unconfirmed reports that the emergency call was triggered as a result of a medical issue on board the flight.

  • Everyone loves their furry (and sometimes not so furry) friends – and we want to meet yours. Whether you’ve got dogs, cats, rodents, birds, lizards or something even more exotic, tell us – and our readers – all about your faithful friends. Click here to submit information and pictures.

According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, having spent much of the journey at 38,000 feet, the Boeing 737 fairly rapidly descended, before touching down earlier than expected in Bristol, rather than continuing on to Manchester.

It is believed that it landed at around 11pm on Friday, touching down on runway 27.

South Wales Argus:

However, the aircraft did not linger in the West of England airport long, departing once again at around 12.10am, landing some 30 minutes later – bringing the remaining passengers back to Manchester Airport.

It is not thought that there were any issues with the aircraft leading to the emergency landing, as, not only was it able to continue onwards to Manchester that same evening, it has since returned to the skies five more times over the weekend, making a return journey from Manchester to Alicante and back, before heading from Spain to Copenhagen in Denmark.

Read more local news here

Ryanair has been contacted for a comment.